Slow Cooker Balsamic Roast

It’s slow cooker playing time! I popped this one in the slow cooker at night and woke up to the most amazing smell wafting enticingly all over the house.

When it starts getting cooler, this is the kind of thing you want to come home to or wake up to.

And best of all, it only took me about 15 minutes to prep, then it was set and forget for about 8 hours. I seasoned and seared the beef chuck on both sides, mixed the gravy ingredients and dumped it all in the slow cooker. Easy peasy.

It came out tender and moist. And soaked in the au jus/balsamic gravy. Shredding it was easy apart from the time I had to spend actually doing it. I mean, all I had to do was look at the roast and it practically fell apart.

Despite being braised in balsamic vinegar, it’s not too sour and tart like you would think stuff associated with vinegar would be. The brown sugar balances it out nicely so you’ll end up with a mildly sweetened and savory roast.

One thing I did do after I shredded the beef was to separate it from the gravy. I poured the gravy in a bowl and let it cool down. All the fat from the beef floated to the surface and hardened. Then I just skimmed it off and reheated the gravy to pour over the beef, fat free!

Eat them with mashed potatoes or put them in sandwiches or french rolls with some cheese. I paired them with my some mashed spuds and smoky roasted mushrooms from a couple days ago. And leftovers were made into beef sandwiches with an au jus dip!

Oh yeah, it lasted us quite awhile for dinner. Heats up well too. The only problem I foresee with the skimming is waiting for the gravy to cool down. I wonder if popping it in the fridge to accelerate the process will work.

I’m kind of late to the party, but there’s a handy cooking accessory called a gravy separator – it looks like a measuring cup with a low spout that pours the liquid from the bottom and leaves the fat floating on top. They’re not easy to find; I got mine on Amazon and I love it. I don’t make a lot of gravy but this really cuts down on fats when I want to use the “jus”.

I’ve seen those around after making this post. Just haven’t got around to watching a YouTube to figure out how to use it yet. I’m not great with descriptions and need visuals to learn new things. One of these days, I’ll probably end up with one myself if it’s worth the space in the kitchen!

Farah, thank you for this superb combo. We got a new slow cooker yesterday and this was the first thing we made in it. FANTASTIC! We will make it again as we settle in for another long winter here in northern Michigan. The brown sugar and balsamic vinegar pair beautifully with this. Excellent!

Well, had to try this. My husband loved it and would like to see it again sometime (& he’s been eating it every day this week!). I thought the beef was great, but the gravy was very sweet….a little weird. I think that this sauce would be great with meatballs. It’s kind of a less intense sweet & sour. I like that idea. kel

Holy cow! I made this tonight and it was fantastic! The meat had such a savory rich flavor. In my opinion the gravy did it’s job in flavoring the meat but more on top would’ve been too sweet and ruined the underlying delicious flavor. All in all this was fabulous. Already in my recipe box. Thanks!

Oh no! You caught me while I was on vacation for Thanksgiving! I do hope it turned out okay for you. It seems to be a hit or miss with some people liking the sweetness and some not. I’ve personally never added any veggies to this and didn’t treat this like a pot roast since it’s a very strong flavor profile. I would think having veggies with the same flavor might be a bit too much so I would recommend doing veggies with a different flavor profile to balance this out.